St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-05-24

was an old man, having long white
locks and long white beard. Why, sir,
l would stake my life on what L
saw, though it would be useless to try
to make you believe it. Just as the
stern of the ship was passing me- her
captain raised his hand, as if TIE motion
accompanied an order, and there was a
rush of the men to execute it. Sail was
taken in while you could snap your fin
ger, and the helm was put down, and
the ship came into the wind. She wasn't
a stones throw away then, and my eyes
were still on her, when some one behind
me hoarsely exclaimed: g
My God! Mr.. Merwin, but did you
ever see the likes of it!''
turned to see one of the men behind
me. l turned from him again to the
strange craft, and she was gone! 1t took
me two or three minutes to realize that
there was no wind and no sea, and that
no ship could have man9uvered as she
did, and then | asked of the man:
ZONES, what did you see?"
IL got chill, sir, though it's warm
enough, as we all know, and awoke to
stood on my feet | saw the ship, and
was right behind you when she short
ened sail and came up"
And where is she now?"
'.Gone, sir. That's ghost ship, sir,
and we are in for bad luck
could have kicked myself for believ-
ing in what | saw. l went after the
glasses, and just as / got them the
lashings holding the whale on the port
side gave way with great crash, the
bark keeled to starbOard with the
weight of the other fish, and as she
rocked back the other lashings parted,
and we ran to the rails, port and star
board, III time to see the whales sink
out of sight. The whole crew were
aroused and the captain stormed in a
terrible way, but as no one was to blame
no one could be censured. Next day it was
known through the ship that the Flying
Dutchman had been sighted, and,
strangely enough, there was not skep-
tic. The captain made me relate the de-
tails over twice, and then he ordered
sail on the bark and we stood down the
Brazilian coast for $50 miles. The
whales had suddenly left us, and it was
exactly nine days before the cry
OF There she blowsw was
heard again. We lowered for a
forty-barrel whale and got him,
and our old time enthusiasm returned.
We had got him tried out and the decks
cleaned up when it came on calm, quiet
night again. The men had had a long
rest, and every one of the watch was
wide awake, when, at about II o'clock,
with everything quiet allow and alOft,
the lookout suddenly called:
There's a big ship close aboard of us
on the starboard bowl"
Every man Sprang up and we all
rushed forward in a body, and there,
plain as lighted lamp at midnight, was
a big ship tearing down upon us, and
| only cables length away. Not one of
us remembered that it was dead calm,
and we yelled out in chorus to attract the
strangers attention. He held for lis
until could see the sparkle of copper
| under his fore foot, and then shift of the
helm sent him along our brOadside, and
| the performances of the previous Occa-
| sion were repeated. He went out of
| sight after rounding to, and by that
time our captain was Oh deck. He queS-
| toned every. man separately, and all
| told the same story, and later on. as he
stood with me on the quarter, he said:
MIR. Merwin, that's bad luck again. 1t
may mean something more than losing
| whale.'
Next day we raised a whale and he
stove two boats and killed three men.
and it was eleven days after that before
we raised another. On the night of the
10th, with all the men in my watch wide
awake, and the ship drifting before a
gentle breeze, the ghostly visitor came
out of the darkness again, and was
seen as plainly as before. Next
ay we raised three whales at once
Down went three boats, the captain
leading. l killed my whale almost al
once. The other boats made fast and
were run off, and from that day to this
have never been heard of. We saw the
stranger no more after that. Had he
| appeared once more | believe that every
man of the crew wonld have leaped into
the sea and sought death by drowning